


Side Benefits To Being Sort Of Possessed

by Asymptotical



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Inappropriate Use of the Force, M/M, Outlander Theron, What to do when the boss you betrayed is camping out in your crush's head
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-10-12 02:47:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20556935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asymptotical/pseuds/Asymptotical
Summary: Theron would really like it if the universe would stop fucking him over. The situation is bad enough as is. He doesn't need an evil force ghost in his head on top of it.Wrath is happy to help how he can, even if he's fairly sure that Theron is inevitably going to become a Voice.





	Side Benefits To Being Sort Of Possessed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wednesday](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wednesday/gifts).

The Wrath of the Empire (former Wrath of the Empire?) strolling onto the Gravestone wasn't something Theron had been braced for. 

Theron wasn't sure why he wasn't expecting it. He hadn't had much to do with Lana's Wrath when everything was going down with Revan, but the man was as much involved as any of their other people. 

Wrath wasn't in Sith armor, which just screamed _wrong _to Theron even though he'd only met the man all of twice. It was like looking at a bad spy, except this wasn't a spy and Wrath wasn't trying to hide -- he was just…not dressed as a Sith. He had his tiny little Fallen Jedi apprentice behind him looking similarly out of place in civvies and if Theron didn't _know_ who they were and _know _what they could do it might have been possible to assume that the whole dominating presence thing was just due to him looking dangerous. 

And it was. 

But Theron had seen him in battle often enough on Yavin to know that the Force would make it very clear to everyone around exactly how this man in particular felt. Especially if that feeling was 'angry'. 

Valkorion was silent, thankfully, or maybe just gone. 

Wrath eyed Theron carefully as he approached. The apprentice was still as a statue. 

If he hadn't known better Theron would have assumed she was taking cues from her Master, but Theron did know better and he knew damn well what she was doing. He might have been annoyed about it before; he didn't particularly want little miss 'I don't need to read your mind I can just read your everything' looking at him with that sight. 

But she was the only possible answer to the question that had been plaguing him since he woke up and it was an answer they desperately needed. 

Wrath was still watching him warily, silently. It felt off, but since Theron's entire two previous interactions with the man consisted of Wrath flirting with him on Manaan and snarling for him to stay out of the way during a fight on Yavin, he wasn't willing to make any judgement calls. 

He couldn't really blame him for being careful. Theron wasn't particularly thrilled about the whole hosting the Emperor's ghost thing either and _Theron_ hadn't betrayed the Emperor. It probably said a lot that Wrath was still willing to show up. 

He wondered if Lana knew about Valkorion. Theron sure as hell hadn't told her. He wondered if Wrath would. 

The apprentice blinked back to herself, then looked up at her master. Whatever was in her gaze seemed to relax him some…not completely, but for all Theron knew 'slightly tense' was just Wrath's default. 

"Well?" Theron asked. Lana wasn't here, but neither were Koth or Senya, so they may as well not dance around the subject. 

"You're…" She hesitated, glancing at her master again for some signal that Theron couldn't even see. "You have…another presence attached to you. But you're still yourself." 

Wrath smirked at him, the expression somehow more familiar even though Theron had only seen it once before. "Well, that's unexpected." 

"What does that mean." 

Wrath shrugged. "I haven't been involved in the choosing of a Voice before, but I wouldn't have assumed he would bind any of his power to you before he could claim you fully." 

Theron ground his teeth. No one was claiming him. He was dealing with Arcann and then he was dealing with Valkorion. If the man wanted to keep tempting him with power then he was just going to keep being disappointed. "If it had been, what would you have done?" 

"I don't know. He was a mad ghost devouring entire planets and a benevolent ruler all at the same time, in two separate places. Which is he going to do next?" 

"Whichever it is, it isn't going to be while using my body as a puppet." 

The Sith tilted his head slightly, giving Theron an appraising look. His smile widened. "Unlikely. Though if anyone could manage to get out of it, it would be you." 

And then, as though that finished the conversation, Wrath swept past, presumably to check in with Lana. 

His reprieve from Valkorion lasted about two seconds after Wrath left. 

_"He's strong," _Valkorion said, sounding smug. _"He's loyal. Keep him with you."_

"He literally just said that he wasn't sure if he would serve you again." Theron grumbled, not feeling particularly charitable towards the Sith at the moment. 

Valkorion chuckled. _"He swore to me, but his heart swore to the Empire. As long as I _was_ the Empire, he did anything I asked of him. The moment I wasn't, he started searching for something equal to serve. He hadn't found it, until you."_

"I'm not the Empire." Theron said. 

Silently, he added that Valkorion wouldn't be the Empire either, even if he managed to do whatever plot he was trying to set up for by offering Theron his power and took over Theron's head or something. 

_"But you could be. Even if he would serve a Dark Council that surrendered, they're too afraid of him to want him. Give him something to follow and he will. Turn that rage to your own use."_

"How about no." 

Valkorion just laughed. _"You say that as though you have a choice. As though you aren't going to use a weapon that delivered himself into your hands."_

* * *

Theron had every intention of completely avoiding Wrath. He had enough uncertainties to deal with, without Valkorion trying to gift wrap a _minion_ for him. 

There was no telling what Wrath knew about Valkorion's plans, but the bits that Theron knew he'd spilled on Yavin and his reaction on meeting Theron here seemed to point towards him having a general idea. Presumably he'd given the information to Lana but… Theron would have to follow up with her later. There had been too much to do and he'd been talking to _Darth Marr_ more than Lana after that whole mess on Rishi, so really he had no idea. 

All he knew about Wrath was that he was insanely powerful. He was powerful enough for the Empire to look the other way while he kept a lightsided fallen Jedi as his apprentice, even after the Emperor disappeared. Either the entire Empire was made up of blind idiots or they were too certain Wrath would destroy them to call him on it. 

And if Valkorion wanted him around, then either he didn't think Wrath knew anything that could harm him… Or he thought that Theron knowing what Wrath knew would somehow make Theron more susceptible to him. Or he just thought it would be fun to give Theron a fighting chance. 

Getting close to Wrath wasn't worth the risk. 

Luckily Wrath didn't seem to be pushing it. He and Lana were working on something and Theron was happy to leave them to it. They didn't talk again for awhile. 

So it was a surprise to walk out of the utter _bantha shit_ of a test that Senya's supposed allies had dropped on him, to find Wrath leaning against a wall and waiting. 

Lana shot a frown at Wrath that told Theron she _knew_ that Wrath knew about the whole Emperor in his head business. Maybe Lana listened to the man less than Theron thought she did. Or Wrath trusted her less. At some point Theron was going to have to suck it up and talk to Lana more than the minimum absolutely necessary because…right now all of his allies were former enemies so it wasn't like he had a lot of choices. Lana would sell him out, but at least he knew that she didn't want Valkorion back which was more than he could say for the _rest_ of his 'allies'. 

Theron slipped away from the rest of the group and waved them on towards the Gravestone. No one argued. 

Wrath's gaze felt uncomfortably like his apprentice's had and Theron was suddenly tempted to pretend that he hadn't noticed the man, or to call Koth back or something to fend off any talking about the Emperor-shaped dewback in the room, but he needed to know what Wrath knew. 

"He's manipulating things." Wrath said as Theron walked up. 

"He's also probably listening in right at this moment." 

Wrath just shrugged. "He was watching my every move before. We discovered how on Rishi; it's why I left. If he's going to decide to kill me then that's already decided." 

Theron wanted so badly to trust the other man. It was stupid. He was aware of that. There was also a non-zero chance that Valkorion was somehow manipulating him into it. Valkorion was in his head and if Wrath _was_ still loyal to the man then this could all be a set up… 

But it would be nice to have an ally and Wrath seemed to be _honest_, if nothing else. Theron's list of honest people he could call on was short and dropping rapidly. 

And it helped that Wrath was someone Theron had been attracted to for awhile. He was at his wit's end enough to admit it, at least in the safety of his own head. It was distracting and ill advised and Theron was absolutely ruthless enough to consider whether acting on it would force Valkorion to give him some space. 

Instead of even trying to voice any of that, Theron just sighed. "If you've got any advice, that would be useful." 

Wrath just shrugged, "He's going to do what he's going to do and you aren't going to be able to stop him. He's going to have what plots he plots and you almost certainly aren't going to be able to stop him. He's eventually going to try to turn you into his Voice, and you almost certainly won't be able to stop him. You may as well concentrate on the other things and keep an eye out for his machinations in the meantime." 

"Comforting." 

"I don't like to lie." 

"Not very Sith of you." 

Wrath snorted. "Sith is about power. Manipulation is a form of it that I don't see the need to develop." 

"If manipulation is going to bother you, we aren't going to get along. You know what I am." 

Wrath just smiled at him, a dark thing that Theron could literally feel now even though he was pretty sure Wrath didn't have that whole dark aura thing going at the moment. Thanks, creepy old dude living in his head. Please take back the creepy force senses. 

He kind of expected Wrath to say something about Sith and manipulations and all of that mess. 

Instead, after a few moments of increasingly loud silence, the man just rolled his eyes. It was such a _normal_ gesture that it was almost startling. "Did you know that you're the only person some Dark Lords fear as much as a Wrath?" 

Theron startled. "Pretty sure the first time I've dealt with that lot was on Yavin. And Marr isn't-- wasn't, afraid of much." 

"Marr wasn't afraid of you," Wrath agreed. "But many on the Council are afraid of the Technoplague." 

"Dunno what that is." Theron instantly activated his implants, ready to keep his reactions suppressed if he needed to. 

"Don't play that game. I don't care if you confirm it, I already know who you are. My _point_ is that your manipulations have a place in things and if I was going to get offended the time for that is long past." 

Theron narrowed his eyes. "You could have just said that." 

Wrath just shrugged, that dark smile coming back. "I said what I meant. There aren't many people that can inspire more fear than I do. Regardless of the reason, it's impressive." 

* * *

Theron started dragging Wrath along with him on missions after that. Not that it was hard to persuade him. 

It earned him a few odd glances from Lana. It resulted in Koth deciding that he and Wrath were going to be _friends_, which was frankly hilarious. It meant Theron could chat with Jaesa about normal things from the Republic and pretend he wasn't surrounded by Sith and Zakuulians for five seconds. 

It didn't stop him from taking a lightsaber to the gut. 

He felt Wrath before he woke up, a dark roiling presence that he _shouldn't_ have been able to feel that easily. And even if he felt it, it shouldn't have felt comforting. 

Clearly a side effect of spending way too much time with a Sith. 

Theron tilted his head to the side and there was Wrath, kneeling on the ground in a meditative position and glowing dark purple. Almost as soon as Theron looked at him, the Sith's eyes snapped open and he pushed to his feet just fast enough that Theron was pretty sure the man had been worried. 

Wrath scowled down at him. "You almost died." 

"Lightsaber strikes will do that." 

Theron made to sit up but Wrath stopped him, bracing a hand directly over where Theron knew there must be a scar and pushing him back down. "I don't think you understand just how close to death you were." 

"Lightsaber. To the gut. Very understood." 

Wrath glared at him, darkness still flickering in his eyes. "Next time, you don't go alone." 

"I would have preferred not to this time, but if it happens it happens." Theron sighed. "Let me up." 

Wrath didn't move. 

Theron shoved at his hand, digging his fingers into Wrath's wrist when that did nothing. That didn't seem to do anything either, but after a moment Wrath twisted his hand and caught Theron's wrist. 

It was enough room for Theron to wiggle to the side and sit up, but Wrath kept hold of his wrist. Theron was determined to just ignore it, even if the way Wrath's thumb was stroking at his skin was so very much the opposite of platonic. 

"I need to go talk to Lana," he said. 

This was probably what he deserved for flirting in an attempt to piss off his unwelcome head companion. 

The Sith pulled Theron's hand up and pressed a kiss to the back of Theron's fingers, before letting him go. "Fine." 

Theron went bright red and decided to just entirely forget that it had ever happened as he shoved off the cot. 

* * *

The proper thing to do, once he realized that he wasn't entirely comfortable with all the flirting actually going somewhere serious, would have been to distance himself. 

Theron didn't do that. 

In his defense, the only two people of Theron's that they had found were a healer and a smuggler, neither of which were suited to smashing things, and a lot of the missions that Theron had to personally go on were the smash things sort of mission. 

The more people there were in the Alliance, the more aware Theron was of how tenuous the whole mess was. They were constantly one wrong word away from a fight and while he would have liked to think that him getting along with Sith and Zakuulians set a good impression, he knew a lot of the Republic people here took it a very different way. The chances of some unknown being a spy or deciding to take Theron out were pretty high, even with Lana's mysterious spymaster and SCORPIO vetting everyone, so he stuck to the people he _knew_ he could trust. 

Plus, Theron and Wrath worked really well together. Theron could talk his way through most things and Wrath wasn't _that_ bad of an actor so the man could mostly play along. And if it came to fighting…. No one could smash their way through enemies quite like the Wrath of the Empire. 

So they kept fighting together, and they kept flirting because Wrath wasn't capable of going two words without veering in that direction, and Theron kept just shying away from anything _other_ than flirting because really he just wanted the distraction and possible provocation. Valkorion not seeming to even notice didn't really dissuade him much. 

Until Theron came back from a confrontation with Valkorion and a very awkward day with his mother to a whole damn mess, with something he couldn't quite identify or control buzzing under his skin, and ended up outside of Wrath's bedroom door. 

He realized it about a second after he got there, and turned around to leave. 

The door snapped open anyway and Wrath reached out and caught hold of his wrist, pulling Theron inside. 

"I was just-- out for a walk." Theron defended, not particularly caring how lame it sounded. 

"Mm." Wrath stared at him for a moment, before pushing him towards the bed. 

Theron would have been worried if Wrath didn't look so damn _concerned_. Sure enough, the Sith pushed Theron to sit down and then dropped down to kneel in front of him, one hand on Theron's knee in a way that _could_ have been sexual if he wasn't staring into Theron's eyes as though he was searching for something. 

Whatever he found seemed to calm him down a little though his words didn't back that up. "He gave you some of his power." 

Theron let out a frustrated huff of air. "I didn't ask for it." 

"I doubt he cared." 

"Well, I'd really rather he took it back." 

"I doubt he can, without tearing you apart." 

Theron fell back on the bed with a frustrated groan, not particularly caring about how he probably shouldn't even be here, nevermind lying on Wrath's bed. He could feel the bed shifting as Wrath joined him on the mattress, but he was firmly not caring. Apparently they were that level of friends now. This was fine. Who else was he going to vent to? Lana? Senya? The Barsen'thor? Not a chance. 

He _really_ wasn't expecting Wrath to pull Theron into his arms. Theron stiffened for a moment, before deciding fuck it, his pride was already in tatters from this whole mess. Cuddling with the Wrath of the Empire wasn't even top five of the things he was going to regret doing. 

Theron pressed his face against Wrath's shirt and tried not to shiver as the man rubbed a hand down his back. 

"You aren't going to Fall." Wrath said, probably trying to guess at what was bothering Theron. "You have a new tool, that's all. Whatever game he's playing, I doubt anything you do will make you more or less likely to fall into the trap he's setting at the end." 

"You can't be sure of that." 

"No, but if there's no way to know then I'd go with the assumption the he isn't operating on the same level as the rest of us." 

"He isn't… He's still a person. A fucked up old person with too much power but a person." 

"Mm." 

"He is." Theron insisted, fingers curling into Wrath's shirt harshly enough that his nails were probably scratching the man through the fabric. 

"He _was_," Wrath admitted, "but I don't know what he is." 

"Let's just go with a person." 

The Sith huffed out a laugh. "Fine. Then what do you want to do with the power that person forced upon you?" 

"I want it gone." 

"Not possible. What do you want to _do_ with it?" 

"Using it might just be falling into his plans." 

"And not using it might be leaving an unknown force within your body, unmastered by any but the one who put it there. There's no way of knowing which is true and no way of protecting yourself against either." 

"The Barsen'thor--" Theron stopped himself. No matter how much he _wanted_ to trust Wrath, he had no idea what the other man knew and mentioning things like that were probably a bad idea. 

"The Emperor is so far beyond what The Barsen'thor's shields were made to fight that any attempt to shield you against the Emperor could kill both you and the Jedi." Wrath said. 

Theron's breath caught. "Who told you that?" 

Wrath untangled Theron's hand from his shirt, pulling it up to kiss Theron's wrist. "Contrary to what most people think, I _do_ pay attention. With that ability, of course the Jedi offered, and of course that would be the conclusion." 

He sounded the tiniest bit put out, and somehow _that_ was what calmed Theron down. Right. His overly honest berserker of a Sith probably wasn't spying on them. If he wanted to know something, even something explicitly classified, he'd probably just walk right up to Theron or Lana and _ask_. 

"Most people don't know." Theron said after a moment. 

"Most people are idiots who don't pay attention." 

Theron huffed out a laugh. "Fair." 

They stayed silent for a moment, and Theron could have almost drifted off to sleep except for the energy that kept buzzing in his head, keeping him too keyed up to fully relax. It felt like every bit of him was fully alert except for his mind which was kind of exhausted. 

If this was how Sith lived, he really wanted no part of it. No wonder they were such jerks all the time. 

"You need to either have enough control to force it down, or wear yourself out so much that it doesn't matter. I'd suggest the former." 

"Pretty sure I'm not going to be flinging lightning tonight and I'd rather not go run laps around the base, any other suggestions?" Theron complained. 

"There are ways to use the force that aren't 'flinging lightning' and ways to wear yourself out without leaving a room." Wrath said mildly. 

It would have seemed innocent, except for how this time when his kissed Theron's wrist he lingered and his other hand drifted down to Theron's hip. 

It was a terrible, terrible idea. 

It was something Theron had been _wanting_ to take him up on since Manaan, and he was running out of reasons not to. Wrath wasn't going to betray him to Valkorion. Theron wasn't ever going to be welcome back in the SIS. The future was an uncertain mess that involved a very real chance of him being hollowed out for the evilest asshole in the galaxy to use as a puppet. 

"Can't imagine what _those_ might be, care to demonstrate?" he asked, shifting to press just a bit more against Wrath's side. 

The Sith laughed, then flipped them over. He pinned both of Theron's wrists to the bed above his head, his knees on either side of Theron, and smirked darkly down at him. "Which do you want to see?" He asked, voice about as innocent as it could be under these circumstances. "Using the force without making a spectacle, or how to tire oneself out on a bed?" 

Theron let out half a laugh. "I'm sure you can figure it out." 

Wrath kissed his forehead. "Maybe I'd like to do both." 

"Go for it." 

Theron almost regretted it as the words left his mouth, because Force abilities and his dick did not sound like a good combination, but if he started backing out he wasn't going to stop and then he was going to end up having run laps with an erection and that sounded even _worse_. 

It would probably be fine. 

He tilted his head up into it as Wrath kissed him, then stiffened as _something_ ran down his skin, like a shiver that wouldn't stop going. He was _already_ hyper sensitive but whatever this was wasn't touch, exactly, it was-- It was the Force, obviously, and he could _sense_ it but it didn't have a shape and for some reason that set his head to spinning. 

Wrath bit lightly at his lip, fingers flexing against Theron's wrist as his power kept playing against Theron's skin. Theron dug the heels of his boots into the mattress and tried to press up into-- into _something_ as that power kept finding the right spots to drive Theron more and more towards the edge. He couldn't move; Wrath was keeping him flat on the bed without Theron having even recognized the pressure before this moment and it was _everywhere_. 

He whined into Wrath's mouth, getting nothing but a comforting hum in return as his power shifted around Theron's dick. It wasn't like a hand or even a physical thing it was just-- it just _was_ and the echoes of it against Theron's senses and skin were almost confusing enough to throw him out of it but just almost. 

It felt like it was seeping _into_ him, without actually having any sort of form, and Theron would have been worried about how incredibly dangerous that was if he had any sort of mental control right now, but he didn't. He was lost in a sea of something he couldn't put to words and all he could do was press up into the kiss as much as he could and anticipate each shift against his skin and and wait for Wrath to finish it which Theron _knew_ he was going for but he was holding back for some reason and when he finally did-- 

It took Theron a few moments to come back to himself, and when he did it was with his hands still pinned to the bed and Wrath grinning down at him and the uncomfortable realization that he was going to have to either walk back to his own room having come in his pants or borrow clothes from Wrath. 

"I hate this," he griped, knowing that probably wasn't the best thing to say right after something like this and not caring. 

"Mm." 

"I really, truly, hate everything about this." 

"Mm" 

"Even sex is weird force shit." 

Wrath laughed. "Would you like me to fix that?" 

Theron glared at him, then let his head fall back against the bed. "Give me…give me at least five minutes." 


End file.
